Back Pounding The Streets
One of the things I've always been proud of is running a half marathon in 87 minutes, back when I was still a young buck with a fresh pair of legs. Until recently I could brag about this, safe in the knowledge the other person's time (if they had one at all) wouldn't better it. Then our friends from round the corner came for dinner and we got on to athletics.
Having told him my time you can imagine the look on my face when he calmly told me his was 64 minutes. It took a while to sink in before I asked "Hang on, isn't that ... like ... World record pace!?". It turns out he ran for England (one of the ten best at the distance) and was ranked by the IOC. All this four years ago when he was the age I am now. Needless to say I was put in my place.
Anyway, forward a year or so to New Year's Eve just gone and we're round at theirs talking about resolutions or something. I mention I'd like to take up running again but that my ankle clicks and that's why I haven't run for ten or more years (through fear of any lasting damage). That's when Ali, who happens to be a PE teacher, tells me not to worry unless it ever hurts, which it never does.
So, as of New Year's Day I've been back out there pounding the streets. Next sunday this all culminates in me taking part in the Robin Hood Half Marathon. Although Karen likes to refer to it as a "fun run" to wind me up I'm taking it (maybe too) seriously and have been lucky enough to have Ali as my personal trainer in the run up. To help me out he came up with this training schedule which I've been trying to follow to the letter. Although a week in Greece didn't help and I'm now trying to recover from that.
With less than two weeks to go I am yet to run further than 8 miles, but feel confident I can finish. Whether I beat my goal of 100 minutes remains to be seen. One thing's for sure - I won't even get close to beating my own PB. Wish me luck!
Skip to the 
You can subscribe to an individual
Good luck mate! I too have done one half marathon - PB 103 minutes. So I know how impressive your PB is!
Good luck Jake. Awesome PB. I'm still to go sub 1:30 at half marathon. Best of luck in your race. A 1:40 target is still shifting it and if you bag that then you'll finish quite high up in results. Is that you in the picture? A rite skinny whippet. Given your adventures on the mountain bike have you considered some tri's or adventure races?
Yeah, that's me in the blue. Next to me is my big brother, Tim, with whom I had a sports-man's agreement to cross the line with. They put him first in the ranking (55th I think). Not that I remain bitter to this day.
I'm not keen on the swimming element of doing triathlon but I am thinking of doing a duathlon next month! {Link}
My brother used to be the best runner in the school, but never considered it to be of any value, and never did any training. In his mid-20s he was still whippet-thin, after 10 years of heavy boozing. But on the day of a local marathon he got out of bed and decided to run in it, despite the fact he hadn't done any running for a decade. Incredibly, he finished the full marathon in just over 3 hours and without any injury. And in the last 10 years he has just continued boozing and never ran again. Of course, now that he's in his 40s, and very fat, I doubt he could safely repeat it.
That schedule makes me feel nauseous..
Getting fit again is tough but once you hit your thirties addictive. I started out on that path three years ago and completed the Swiss Ironman this year. Caution! Happy racing :-)
Way to go! I am 32 and just started running 2-3 weeks before a 4th of July 5K race, after probably 14 years without exercising. I've been feeling so great, my stress levels are way down and my health has been rock solid. So my wife & kids are happy with me having more energy & overall being better. Had to promess my wife that I'd stay in 5 & 10 K races, and not going to any marathon. But feeling how I feel a half marathon is turning from something unthinkable into something fun to try.
Being a loner, last week was the first time I ran with some other people while traveling. Social feeling is great, running with other people is awesome. In the meantime, I just acquired my new toy, a GPS watch with Heart Rate monitor. The fun is just starting, I just have had a few workouts with it and it's so fun, love seeing my efforts in distance/pace/heart rate charts, not to mention the satellite views of the places I run.
So I'm and will be enjoying beating PBs having started from a humble 29:43 5K. I was 24:07 last week, but I am targeting sub 20:00 in 3 months or so.
Happy racing!